Sharp County record., 1887-02-17

Won can find only piece Of wood as long
ss. the human GOdy, or a piece as WIde as
ffe outsDlead human arms, and eltner ol
Them i, a piece of the cross, come IN on
tbot niece Tens of thousands Of people
are to-day kept out of the Kingdom OF Uou
because they can not believe every thlhg.
y am taking with man thoNShIIui
V,out his soul who has lately trayeled
Srough New England and passed the night
Anjover. He says to me: Il can not
Eleye that in this life destiny Is lrfeVo-
tyhIv fixed. think there viii be another
portunlty Of repentance after death ,
" fl him. Ny brother, what has thaf
Ia with YOU. Don't you rea,lze that the
I'm who waits for anCthef chance alier
death. when he has a good chance oelorC
death is stark fool! Had not you letter
taEe the plank that is thrown to you now
and head for shore rather than wait Ior
plank that may by invisible h&nas De
thrown to you after you are dead' 10 a.
rc1, uleasp but as fer myself, with pardon
for all nv sins offered me now aud all the
lows Of tine and eternity offered ne
now, instantly take them rather than run
the risk of such other chance as wise men
think they can peel off or twist out OF
a Scripture passage that has Tor all lAe
rhrstiau centuries been interpreted an
other way.
You saw Il do not like Princeton the
ol0gv or Andover theology l do not ask
van on board either Of the great men-of-
war, their portfolios filled with great siege
guns of ecclesiastical battle. But J do ask
YOU to take the one plank OF the Gospel
that YOU do believe in and strike out Tor
rhe pearl-strung beach of Heaven.
Saws some other man; Il wOul1 attend
IN religion if | was quite sure about the
doctrine of election and free agency, but
that mixes me all up Those things used
TO bother me. but have no more perpleX-
itv about them, for say to myself: III l
love Christ and live good, honest, useful
! life | am elected to be saved; and If l do
not love Christ and live bad life will be
damned. and all the theological seminarles
/ of the universe can not make 1t any differ
ent" foundered along while in the sea
of sin and doubt, AMI it was as rough as
the Mediterranean on the fourteenth night
when they threw The grain overheard; but
| saw there was mercy for sinner, and
| that plank took, and | have been warm
| ING myself by the bright fire on the shore
for three decades,
While l am talking to another man about
| his soul he tells me: Il do not become
| Christian because | do not believe there IS
anv hell at all" All don't you: Do all
the people, of all beliefs and no belief at all,
| of good morals and bad morals, 60 straight
to a happy Heaven! Do the holy ana the
| debauched have the same destinations: At
midnight. in a hallway, the owner OF
/ house and burglar meet each other, and
| they both fire, and both are wounded, but
| the burglar dies in five minutes and the
/ oWnerOf the house lives a week after VIII
the burglar be at the gate Of Heaven
| waiting when the hOuse-OWner comes int
Will the debauche and the libertlne go
right in among the families Of Heaven: l
wonder if HerOd is playing on the banks
of the River of Life with the children he
massacred. | wonder if Charles GUteau
and John Wilkes Booth are up there shoot
inc at a mark. do not now cOntrovert it,
although must say for such miserable
Heaven | have no admiration. But the
Bible does not say: believe in perditiOn
and be saved
Because all are saved, according to your
theory. that ought not to keep you from
.ing and serving Christ. Do not refuse
HcOme ashore because all the others, ac-
cordng to your theory, are going to get
ashore. You may have different theory
about chemistry, about astronomy, about
the atmosphere, from that which others
adopt, but you are not therefore hindered
from action Because your theory of light
is different from others, you do not refuse
to open your eyes; because your theory OF
air is different, you do not refuse to
breathe, because your theory about the
stellar system is different, you do not re-
fuse to acknowledge the north star. Why
should the fact that your theO, 1gical the
cries are different hinder you from acting
upon what you know. If you have not
whole ship fashioned in the theological dry
docks to bring you to wharfage, you nave
at least plank "SOme on broken pieces
Of the ship
But | do not believe in revivalsH' Then
90 TO your room, and all alone with your
door locked give your heart to God and
ioin some church where the thermometer
never gets higher than fifty in the shade
But do not believe in baptisml' Come
in without it and settle that matter after
ward. But there are so many inconslst-
ent Christians :" Then come in and show
them by good example how professors
ought to act. But don't believe in the
Old Testamentw Then come in on the
New. "But don't like the Book Of Ro-
mansr' Then come III on Matthew or
Luke Refusing to come to Christ, whom
Won admit to be the Saviour Of the lost be-
cause you can not admit other things, you
are like a man out there in that Mediter-
ranean tempest and tossed in the Melita
breakers, refusing to come ashore until he
can mend the pieces of the broken ship.
| hear him say: ~ won't 90 in
on any Of these planks until |
know in what part Of the ship they be-
long; when | can get the windlass IN the
right place, and the sails set, and that keel
piece where it belongs, and that floor tim
Der right, and these ropes untangled, will
90 ashore am an old sailor and know all
about ships for forty years, and as soon IS
| can get the vessel aflOat in good shape |
will come i'm A man drifting by on a
piece of wood hears him and says: "You
will drown before you get that ship recon-
structed. Better do as | am doing. | know
nothing about ships, and never saw one be-
fore | came on board this and | can not
swim a stroke, but am going ashore on
this shivered timber" The man in the
citing while trying to mend his ship goes
down The man who trusted to the plank
Is saved. o, my brother, let your smashed